Prognostic Impact of Change in the Fibrinogen and Albumin Score During Preoperative Treatment in Esophageal Cancer Patients

Background: For resectable advanced esophageal cancer, a transthoracic esophagectomy following preoperative treatment is recognized as one of the standard treatments. Therefore, predictive markers which can be identified before surgery need to be established to identify patients with a poor prognosis. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 102 consecutive patients who underwent curative transthoracic esophagectomy following preoperative treatment in our institution between 2004 and 2013. Based on plasma fibrinogen and serum albumin levels, the pretreatment and preoperative fibrinogen and albumin score (FA score) were investigated and the prognostic significance of the FA score change was compared with RECIST. Results: The patients were classified according to whether the FA score had remained unchanged or decreased (n = 77) or the FA score increased (n = 25). When the correlation between the response rate and change in the FA score was investigated, the response rate was significantly lower in the group with the increased FA score. In the survival analysis, patients in the increased FA score group exhibited a significantly worse recurrence-free survival (RFS) (P = 0.038). A multivariate analysis using the clinical stage and the change in the FA score as covariates revealed that a change in the FA score (HR 1.802; P = 0.047; 95% CI 1.008–3.221) was shown to be a significant independent predictive factor for RFS. Conclusions: A change in the FA score was shown to be an independent prognostic factor for postoperative recurrence in esophageal cancer patients who have undergone transthoracic esophagectomy following preoperative treatment.